Have sweeping golden meadows of paper daisies caught your eye recently?
Dazzling aren't they! Did they make you want to give it a go in your own garden? We have some helpful advice for those wanting to recreate this effect.
The horticulturists at Kings Park, Perth and The Australian Botanic Garden, Mt Annan have a lot to answer for. For the last five months they have nurtured
spectacular displays of annual wildflowers creating far reaching meadows and waves of colour coded brilliance. For the home-gardener, this is pretty
much impossible to achieve. Trust us - we've tried. Seeding annual paper daisies can be variable at best, abject failure at worst.
By all means take a drive to see these paper daisy meadows, take a picnic, soak it up. They only last for a few weeks. Hurry!
Instead it's important to note the difference between annual ephemeral paper daisies (like the ones above) with a short flowering season and perennial
paper daisies with long lived display (like the ones below). We think you should forgo the short-lived annual paper daisies for long-lasting perennial
types. Go to your local wildflower specialist and buy as many 6 inch pots you can afford. Isn't this apricot one divine?
Photo- Silvergull / Shutterstock.com
Perennial daisies are more rounded and shrubbier, the flower are bigger, and they last longer. From white, lemon, yellow, apricot, orange to
pinks and dark red. Look out for ‘Golden Everlasting', ‘Dargan Hill Monarch’and ‘Golden Bowerbird’ and this lovely starry white one called ‘Diamond
Head’.
'Diamond Head'.
For $14 you get over 2 years of bush colour. Like most desert loving natives they need good drainage, so mound up the soil well. Plant them in full sun,
give them one good drink and they’re off. After that watering is optional for these easy to grow bush stunners. Feed them with a slow release native
plant feed, sit back and enjoy. Perennial paper daisies will self-seed when conditions are right – resulting in a haze of bush wildflowers in
your garden every day of the year.
The aptly named, 'Flame'
We grow them under coastal banksia, beside dwarf bankias, contrasting against kangaroo paw and mass-planted in groups of 3, 5, or 9. Warm colours look
great against carpets of sky blue of fan flower (Scaveola) or native bluebells (Wahlenbergia). Don’t hold back – they really are the showiest of all
native wildflowers. Pick armfuls of them, dry upside down and they truly will be everlasting. Best of all they are never without flower, have pollen
laden centres, so they have the added benefit of attracting bees.
Best of all - they're a hit with the beneficial insects like these hover-flies.
Photo - Silvergul / Shutterstock.com